I am a first time user of Thunderbird after Outlook Express was no longer supported in Windows7. When I open thunderbird and new messages arrive in the list I have to scroll down to see them. I've arranged my messages so that the newest ones populate the bottom of the list. Is there a way so that Thunderbird will autoscroll to the end of the list to show the new messages?

Guest

Guest

Posted March 23rd, 2010, 2:03 am

You can sort messages by which criterion (effectively which column in the display) you choose and by ascending or descending order, as with OE (and most other email clients). Just click on what you want. See here:

Where does it says I'm not "supposed" to use my inbox as a storage box? In the instruction it even tell you how to combine all my mail accounts so that they feed into one inbox. I don't really want to move my messages to a storage folder, I'm happy just keeping them in the inbox as I did in Outlook Express.

Guest wrote:You can sort messages by which criterion (effectively which column in the display) you choose and by ascending or descending order, as with OE (and most other email clients). Just click on what you want. See here:

That doesn't fix my problem. I tried to organize my list based on date and also tried based on "order received" but when a new message arrives the message is hidden from view till I scroll down. With Outlook express it automatically scrolled to show the new messages. I guess this is not the way this program works?

D0T-C0M wrote:Where does it says I'm not "supposed" to use my inbox as a storage box?

In The Little Red Book of Rules, I guess.

For some reason I can't fathom people posting on this board tend to have fascistic attitudes.

You may do as you wish, of course. There are genuine advantages to moving messages out of the INBOX after you read them, however. For example, Thunderbird uses UNIX mbox files for storage. It's a rather antiquated format with a number of disadvantages, but is at least recognized by a number of different programs. However, with mbox all messages in a mailfolder are stored in one file. Some AV programs, if they can't proxy and check email *before* it gets to your INBOX, will try to grab an infected message and, because all messages are in one file, quarantine the whole INBOX.

So do as you please, of course: this isn't (despite what some posters might wish) North Korea. But you may wish to move messages after reading them, because there are good reasons to.

But this doesn't affect which way messages are sorted. You can sort by date in *either* descending or ascending order -- as with all other email programs.

I have three inboxes that I work with daily. I've noticed that two of the three, will always "land" on a new bold message. However, one of them will end up somewhere in the list (sometimes). As far as I can tell, they're all set up the same.

I migrated to Thunderbird because Windows Live Mail just doesn't cut it as a replacement for Outlook Express. I'm very happy with TBird and it passed the acid test for ease of use by my non-computer-literate nearest and dearest - only this non-autoscrolling message list has raised any complaints. And just to be clear: no way we are going to classify and move to other folders the 4390 messages in the inbox; and this isn't a sorting issue. Please don't lecture me on how I should manage my messages - you should see my desk at work, I'm just naturally messy. I'd rather throw more hardware at any performance problems rather than change the way I use the software.

The auto-scrolling function you seek is not available. That's why it was not given in the preceding replies in this thread.

No lecture, but be advised that keeping old messages in your Inbox makes you very vulnerable to losing them altogether. It may never happen, but the possibility is very real. The Inbox of any email program is the most active folder in the whole mail system. As such it is the most likely to be in the middle of doing something if a system upset occurs (computer lockup, power surge, whatever) and so is the most vulnerable to file corruption. That makes it a risky place for long term mail storage. It is good practice to move messages you wish to retain out of the Inbox and into other, safer, folders as soon after receipt as is practical.

So do what you want with your messages, but be aware of the risks. And don't come crying to us here when disaster strikes.

I am a long time user of Thunderbird. I migrated a few years ago from Netscape communicator.In Netscape and in thunderbird both the program always opened the same way it was when I closed it.If I closed it scrolled down to the new messages, it was that way when I opened it the next time.

Recently I received an upgrade and this feature went away. Now I have to scroll down to my new messages every time I open my inbox (even if I change to another folder and come back). I have been using my email the same way for 15 years and I hope someone put this feature back in the program. It is very disappointing.

It is also disappointing that clueless people that don't offer any solutions feel a need to chime in with snide remarks.

mike.smith

Guest

Posted November 12th, 2010, 7:18 am

JimmyB845214443 wrote:I am a long time user of Thunderbird. I migrated a few years ago from Netscape communicator.In Netscape and in thunderbird both the program always opened the same way it was when I closed it.If I closed it scrolled down to the new messages, it was that way when I opened it the next time.

Recently I received an upgrade and this feature went away. Now I have to scroll down to my new messages every time I open my inbox (even if I change to another folder and come back). I have been using my email the same way for 15 years and I hope someone put this feature back in the program. It is very disappointing.

It is also disappointing that clueless people that don't offer any solutions feel a need to chime in with snide remarks.

My T-bird at home automatically scrolls to the new messages at the bottom of the list. My office T-bird used to, but now it doesn't. So I know it IS possible, and WILL behave this way, so how do I change it back at the office, so it acts like it used to?

I am puzzled by zellershp's comment that its account specific. I can't think of a dependency that could cause that (assuming same type of account and enough messages to require auto-scrolling for all 3 accounts).

What versions are you using that have this problem (don't say latest)?Is it only for POP accounts?Does it also occur with saved searches or unified folders?